Celtic navigated a difficult afternoon in Ayrshire to leave Rugby Park with three points. Derek McInnes’ side set up to frustrate the Champions and look to capitalise on a European hangover.
Celtic won 2-0 thanks to goals either side of the break from Callum McGregor and Nicolas Kühn. The German winger showed his class to close the game out after Killie had 19 attempts at the Celtic goal.
The game was not without controversy as Adam Idah was left with a bleeding nose after receiving an elbow. Tony Ralston escaped an injury from a high boot and Kasper Schmeichel was kicked after the ball had gone by Liam Donnelly.
However, Sky Sports pundit Kris Boyd appeared to be only interested in Reo Hatate’s foul. The Japanese midfielder was late with a tackle and was a worthy recipient of a yellow card. Nick Walsh was told to delay the restart as VAR checked for a possible red card but the onfield decision was upheld.
🟥 “It’s a red card all day long”
🗣️ “He's very fortunate”Kris Boyd & James McFadden on Reo Hatate’s challenge, which he was given a yellow card for ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/z5Uz0Nn7au
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) November 10, 2024
Boyd likes to play up to the gallery with his faux outrage about Celtic. As an ex player, Boyd will know that there’s been no malice in Hatate’s challenge nor has he been reckless given the lack of speed in the tackle. It was a booking because it was high but nothing more.
Referees get enough stick without pundits wrongly fuelling the flames. It’ll be interesting to see if there’s any review about the decision in the next few weeks.
Before the goal Killie were physical, and matched our pace. After our goal, the forearms, feet and “afters” started to fly in from the home team at every touch we had. It was entirely predictable wee bully boy stuff. After the second goal it was embarrassing long ball stuff from McInness’ farmers team, and they couldn’t compete, resorting to cheap shots at any opportunity. Leaving the boot in, body checks, just a team desparate to try and do anything to compete, if not play football. They showed a total lack of composure in the final twenty, and the game was well beyond them by that point.
I’m sure a lot will be said about the number of shots Kilmarnock had, but only a couple were troublesome. Frankly the vast majority were bread and butter for Kasper to save, and a few were disappointingly poor.
A welcome 3 points on a fast playing plastic pitch against an aggressive, tough physical side is a decent result after the heroics of a Champions League midweek game. Well done chaps.
Not after the goal, just after the refs whistle set the game off.
I’ve seen red cards given for tackles like Hatate’s so wouldn’t have been surprised if he had been sent off. It was high and he was nowhere near the ball. In mitigation there was no force or malice in the tackle and he did seem to pull out, but it’s still fair to say that he was lucky.